JPags 92 corner build

[JPags]

ok so a few months ago I was sitting in the living room with my wife and was browsing the stuff for sale on the board, I leaned over and showed my wife this brand new corner tank for sale and said wouldn't that look great in the corner where our current tank is.

Well what do you know, she said "Go ahead and get it" , provided the other one leaves the house. I wonder if in the basement as a frag tank qualifies as leaving the house

Not wasting any time I bought the tank, well it took me a month or more to get it but thats another story.

When I brought the tank home my wife looked at it and said "Thats much bigger than it looked in the picture!!" Thanks to the seller for having the picture be so small , but after explaining its no longer than the current tank she just smiled and said "Thats fine, just set it up".

So after picking up some other stuff I needed (Sump, skimmer, etc). The wife and kids are gone for the week so I figure I have a bunch of free time to start setting it up. I had wanted to have everything done and be moving that tank this weekend but that did not workout so I am starting to get the tank ready now.

Since this is my first real build I figured I would start a thread to get feedback and hopefully save my self trouble later if I make a mistake.

I really wanted a RR tank but since the price was right I bought this one. Wouldn't you know it a RR 92 corner went on sale right after a got this one home , but this was brand new so I do not have to worry about any issues from a used tank.

The first thing I did was have C.S. drill the tank and install an overflow. He did a great job and was very reasonable on the price. He even built me a cover for the overflow



This is the rear view



This is the front of the tank with the initial plumbing dry fitted for now.



I have glued most of the pieces together and I sprayed the rear parts black. You really can't see them anyway but i just wanted to make sure things look nice even when you are close to the tank.

I will post some more pictures as I get things finished.

John

 

[reeferpj]

Gee that tank looks small lol nice

 

[dcforester1]

I remember when Jpags had cool things in his garage, like fast cars...,not kids toys.Nice start John.
Derek

 

[SeaMonkey]

Looks nice already Bravo!

 

[willray]

That's a beauty.Looking good!
It is kinda small thou...just look at the baseball for comparison.

 

[bigdog]

wow thats a nice tank now it makes me want 1

 

[delta]

Looks like your off to a nice start, overflow looks great

 

[JPags]

ok, now that vacations are over and the kids are back in school I am going to see if I can get this project moving again.

I actuall had planned on spending time today working on the tank but I spent most of the morning cleaning my other tank (After being neglected for a month or two and going on vacation it needed it).

I also upgrade my RO/DI in preparation for starting the new tank.

I bought a new Dual DI filter, Dual Catalytic Carbon filter, presure gauge from BulkReefSupply. I spent some time removing my old DI which was not doing a great job, it must have been cheap DI resin or something.

I installed a DI bypass so I can bypass the DI when i first start up the filter, and another outlet so I can test the water before the RO filter.

I got all the ideas and info from the "Ride the Wave" thread.
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=79547&highlight=ride+wave
Thanks to Brian.

The only thing I did not do was remove the Carbon filter that came with my RO. I will remove it once I replace the filters.

After the upgrade I am finaly getting 0 on my TDS meter from the output.

I have a few more things I want to do to it, but for now its working great.

I am going to purchase a Photo Phosphate meter soon so I can keep an eye on my phosphate output.

Here is what the final monster looks like.



John

 

[UncleJT]

Nice John, corner tanks can sometimes be a challenge but are very nice once going.

 

[JPags]

Ok, so I finally got my tank built. I spent one weekend finishing all the plumbing and then spent an entire Saturday moving everything out of my old tank and bringing in the new tank. Its been running for 2 weeks now.

I currently have the tank running and everything is moved over. I am happy to say that I only lost a few things. My Caps did not like the move and just rtn'd right away. My Birdnest had a set back but seems to be recovering. My Yellow tang died a few days after being in the new tank. My sun coral fell on the sand bed upside down and I did not notice it for a few days. Once I found it, it have been devastated by some kind of bacteria or something. Everything else seems to be doing ok.

I will try and get a few pictures up soon. I just moved some rocks around and now I have a dust storm going so its not a good time to take pictures.

I am also going through a mini cycle and have algae growing all over the place. Trying to keep up with it until the tank settles in again.

BTW. The wife was kind of shocked when she saw it in the corner, she thinks it too big, I thought she was going to say take it out, but she told me to fill it up and now that the living room is cleaned and back to normal she seems to be accepting it.

JPags

 

[tigerslacrosse4]

sorry to hear about the losses but it was a gamble you had to make... as far as the cycle goes, hang in there you will get through it.

 

[JPags]

So here are some pictures.

This is a full tank shot.



As you can see I had to build some gheto light brackets . I have plans to make a metal bracket to hang the light from, but for now I needed something to hold the light.

I actually used all my old rock in front and on top, I backfilled with a bunch of Marco KeyLargo rock which has a lot of nice holes. The fish love to swim around in the caves I created for them.

The base is all Marco Sand, with a cup or two of my old sand in the back to seed it.

I also used Fritz Turbo start to help populate the bacteria during the transfer.

I still have my HOB Fuge running while I get my new fuge running.








I still have some re-arranging to do with the rocks (There is one big one left on the lower left) but for now they are pretty close to where I want them.

 

[JPags]

This is a picture of the sump and soon to be fuge. I have a filtersock holder but no sock on it now. My skimmer is in and the waste collector was not hooked up yet when I took the picture.

Before I put the sump in I sealed the bottom with a urethan to keep any water that spiils from seeping into the wood.

You can't see it in the picture, but behind my sump I have a water sensor that is hooked up to my alarm system so if enough water spills into the bottom of the stand, I will get a call from my alarm company.

I am driving everything (Return, Skimmer) from a single Mag 9.5 pump. Not sure if this is how I am going to keep it but for now it seems to be working well.

I have the high & low sump levels marked with the blue tape to make sure I do not put to much water in until I get my ATO hooked up.



The extra tubing in the picture will be removed soon, its just there for security because my second return cannot be hooked up because my HOB fuge is in the way.

Right now I am using straight returns but I am probably going to convert them into reverse durso's to help with the bubbles in my sump.

I have the probes for my ACjr being held in my Mag Clips which I love, these magnetic clips come with different size holders and you don't have to worry about them letting go like suction cups.


I mounted my ACjr on a hinge (Got the idea from WillRay) so I can just flip it up when I open the door, and I don't even have to bend over to see it now.




I mounted all my electrical on the back of the stand to keep it away from any water & humidity under the stand.

One other note is that I am posting these messages as I am driving down the highway at 75 MPH (No I am not driving I am a passenger), I really love technology.

Oh yea, all pictures were taken with my new Droid phone, which I love.

 

[Flame Angel]

Looking Good!

 

[dcforester1]

Looks good John